At a Center for Strategic & International Studies talk today, CIA Director John Brennan renewed one of the government's favorite lies about spying: that mass surveillance has been successful in stopping a bunch of mysterious threats while it is simultaneously too ineffective to stop real attacks, because of privacy advocates and whistleblowers.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Cameron is using the Paris attacks to further his totalitarian agenda of mass state surveillance in the UK:

Some politicians in the UK are calling for the government to hurry new surveillance laws into power following deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday. Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that the Investigatory Powers Bill - which was unveiled in draft form two weeks ago - should be "expedited" and put into action "as soon as possible," rather than by the end of 2016.

The UK prime minister David Cameron expressed similar concerns on BBC radio this morning, saying that the government should "look at the timetable" of the legislation. He also announced that the UK would hire 1,900 new security and intelligence staff at MI5, MI6, and GCHQ (an increase of 15 percent) in order to "respond to the increasing international terrorist threat." Cameron added that the attacks in France, which killed 129 people and wounded more than 300, "could happen here."

reminds me of the bugs in Starship Troopers, and part of the Middle East seem like the bug-infested planet in that movie. Whether ISIS' pre-text is believing that the world should revert to the 'glory' of the 7th century, ignoring 1000+ years of Islamic history, really doesn't matter any more than the intolerance and random brutality of their actions.

Their existence on the planet is incompatible with the rest of us, so governments will do whatever it takes to act and react to attempt to protect their citizens......not to mention that we can expect an increasing number of citizens (in the USA at least) to not leave home without packing their weapon of choice....the new normal, sadly.